The Grand Theft Auto series is phenomenal
and in recent years, there have many contenders to the title that have
always fallen short such as State of Emergency, Godfather or even
Saint's Row that almost got close.

The latest contender to the challenge
the GTA franchise is Crackdown that allows the gamer to play a
super-hero type police officer. However unlike ordinary police
officers, your character is basically a super cop in a futuristic world where you can perform
a variety of super-hero type maneuvers in the gaming world that makes
for some extremely entertaining and delicious fun.

Still sounds a little familiar to GTA?
That's because the legendary Dave Jones, one of the creators of the
Grand Theft Auto series is behind this latest XBox 360 game.

True next-generation visuals.
Harnessing the power of Xbox
360, Crackdown players enforce
justice against the backdrop of
a crime-ridden metropolis that
is massive in scale, monstrous
in scope and meticulous in
detail. The unique presentation
style employs a highly stylized
rendering technique that turns
the game into a living graphical
novel.

Cooperative gameplay for double
the mayhem. From the game™s
initial concept to final design,
Real Time Worlds focused on
delivering dynamic, engaging
cooperative gameplay for double
the carnage, action and
intensity.

3-D
free-form gameplay. For the
first time ever, an urban
playground has been created to
encourage players to explore and
exploit the full width, depth
and height of a city. Players
wage war on the crime syndicates
by taking part in high-octane
chases on foot and on wheels
while using any appropriate
route along, around, across,
over, under or through the
environment. Freedom abounds
because it is up to the player
to determine how best to
complete the nonlinear
objectives in a myriad of wild
and creative ways.

Over-the-top action. All
strategies and tactics are
acceptable, provided players
reclaim the streets by
unleashing the awesome abilities
inside each agent. As players
develop and hone their gameplay
skills, their agent™s genetic
tendencies will increase,
allowing players to realize
their agent™s full potential.
Players will be able to run at
dazzling speeds, take
death-defying leaps, handle the
most incredible weapons, perform
impossible vehicular maneuvers,
move massive objects and deliver
bone-crushing blows.

Music as environment. More than
100 licensed tracks, spanning a
wide range of styles and genres,
give audio identities to
characters and locations in
Crackdown. The music coupled
with a next-generation use of
5.1 surround sound will let
gamers know just from the music
and sound effects they hear
which crime syndicate is headed
their way.

The
environment as a weapon. Is a
character low on ammo? No
problem. Thanks to an amazing
amount of props and a deep
physics system, players can use
whatever they can get their
hands on as weapons ” trash
cans, vehicles, even people" to
clean the streets of crime. In
Crackdown, the effects of the
players™ actions stay in place
much longer than in other
open-environment titles, giving
gamers a far greater range of
options when setting the scene
for mass destruction. If players
gather vehicles to create a
barricade, they will be there
when the they return with more.
Gamers can create an arrangement
of explosives and come back
later to set the explosion.
Crackdown remembers, and reacts,
to the players™ actions within
the game world

Crackdown is more like
your traditional arcade game where you must engage in a wide gamut of
different enemies, however where the title comes into its own is the
abilities your characters can perform such as kicking people off
buildings or using some highly unrealistic weapons to blow them into
Kingdom Come... it's over the top, clichéd and definitely going to be a
classic.

But wait? What's the story of Crackdown? Crackdown unfortunately doesn't
feature an in-depth story like Grand Theft Auto but revolves around a
genetically engineered cop who has been given the arduous task of
bringing down three gangland kingpins, each controlling a different
section of Pacific City.

You need to use whatever force
is available to you and needless to say some extreme prejudice. Apart
from the city, there are also other places to explore such as secret
hideouts or nefarious research labs, perfect comic book places. Apart
from using a wide range of technological advanced weaponry, the player
can also use their environment to dispatch their foes, whether it's
throwing trash cans or cars, you will easily find something to use in
this interactive environment.

When you first start the game, you
being at the Agency Tower which is basically in the middle of the city
and from there you receive your memos in order to rid the streets of the
scum that have laid claim to it.

The missions are well structured and
definitely entertaining and I'm sure most gamers will play this title a
few times. To add something even more entertaining into the mix, you can
also complete Crackdown with another player an an exciting cooperation
mode that was a hit in the impulsegamer offices.

Graphically, Crackdown is a visual treat on
the XBox 360 that features some gorgeous gaming environment with a
healthy dose of cell-shading, even though some areas may look simplistic,
the attention to detail is extraordinary.

From realistic explosions and
lighting to characters that move with a human-like grace, everything has
been implemented perfectly into the title. The draw distance and frame
rate is also a first class experience, probably one of the best I've
seen in a long time.

As with the graphics, the audio is great which also
features clichéd and over the top voice acting (perfect for this genre),
an intensive musical score that also lends itself well to the genre and
also a plethora of sound effects from just about everything you would
hear in combat from the ambient sounds of Pacific City itself to the
whispering of criminals

In conclusion, Crackdown is not Grand Theft Auto and is its own "game"
that features highly addictive gameplay, drop-dead gorgeous graphics and
probably the most fun on the XBox 360 console in a long time. However
the replay value for this old gamer was a little lapse.